


pointe

by RabbitKing (DJBunn3)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Ballet, Childhood, Domestic, Fluff, Gen, M/M, OtaYuri Week 2017, lots of ballet terminology because i'm a language nerd, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9900563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJBunn3/pseuds/RabbitKing
Summary: He’s still big, tall and muscular, and he still skates using those qualities. He’s not a kid anymore, he knows that “big” people can be ballet dancers too, but it still doesn’t fit.Yuri stretches his leg high above his head. They’re just warming up, and Otabek had opted for his regular skating stretches instead of the advised warm up exercises that Yuri’s doing. (And if Yuri’s showing off a little, Otabek won’t be mad.)alt. Yuri convinces Otabek to try ballet again.





	

Otabek isn’t fond of ballet.

As a kid, he basically hates it. It’s boring and strict and vigorous in the off-putting type of way that doesn’t seem like it will ever pay off. Not to mention the fact that ballet is generally considered more of a girl’s activity than a boy’s, which leads to some teasing and awkward questions directed at him.

Mostly he just wants to get back on the ice. He’s more fluent there, more comfortable, and it’s definitely more his speed. He loves moving on the ice; it feels graceful, smooth and fluid and beautiful. It’s not something he can do without blades under his feet and cool air on his face. Maybe he will be able to someday. Maybe he won’t.

He quits ballet after “meeting” Yuri, the soldier boy that doesn’t answer to nonsense. He’s in the younger class, which Otabek is transferred into after failing abysmally in the level 3 class.

Yuri doesn’t speak to anyone there unless they’re in his way. He’s laser-focused on practicing, and he does it hard and he does it well. He’s naturally graceful in that way that Otabek is too big for, even now, during his childhood. Yuri dances with a lightness and beauty that seems to fester with spite and determination, and it’s the most paralyzingly wonderful thing that he’s ever seen. Yuri is a contradiction--he strives for perfection and achieves it out of anger.

And maybe someday that will backfire on him. And maybe it won’t.

Otabek quits because he doesn’t have a reason to be there. Not like Yuri, who is clearly excelling and ready to be moved up a level or two. He quits because this won’t help him become a better skater--it’s not his way--and because he wants to become better. It’s stupid to stick around if there won’t be any benefit, he decides, because it seems like the type of thing Yuri would say.

He starts working out more instead, training harder and building his endurance and strength. He’s a big kid, not out of shape by any stretch of the imagination but not exactly fairy-like, and so he uses that to his advantage. He starts skating with his body type in mind, starts working to emphasize it, and he succeeds without ballet.

* * *

 

At twenty, Otabek still hates ballet. Well, he doesn’t exactly hate it as much as he sees it as pointless. (No pun intended.) He’s still big, tall and muscular, and he still skates using those qualities. He’s not a kid anymore, he knows that “big” people can be ballet dancers too, but it’s just not him. It still doesn’t fit.

Yuri, still small even after hitting puberty fully, stretches his leg high above his head while resting his other elbow on the barre. They’re just warming up, and Otabek had opted for his regular skating stretches instead of the advised warm up exercises that Yuri’s doing. (And if Yuri’s showing off a little, Otabek won’t be mad.)

So maybe this won’t help him. Maybe he won’t get anything out of this, but maybe he will, and he wants to _try_ at least, for himself and for Yuri. They’d come to the studio when it was sure to be empty by his own request, and now they’re about to start and he’s a little nervous.

“Ready?” Yuri asks, letting his leg down. Otabek nods, tapping his foot.

“I know you didn’t want to do ballet warm ups, but just run through these ones with me.” It’s a request, but a well-phrased one which he can’t turn down, so he nods again and faces Yuri with his hand on the barre.

“First position.”

They guide their feet until the heels are touching, toes pointed away from each other horizontally, and hold their arms in a curved circle shape in front of them. “Second,” Yuri commands, and Otabek moves his feet a solid few inches away from each other, still keeping the toes pointed in opposite directions. Yuri opens his arms and holds them wide out to the sides.

He follows along, sliding his feet together so that the right is halfway in front of the left and bending one arm in front of him for third, and then moves them forward and back until there’s a good amount of space between them for fourth. Yuri says “ _ouverte_ ” and then “ _croise_ ” and Otabek copies his movements with far less grace, raising his bent arm above his head. Finally they reach fifth position, one foot positioned entirely in front of the other, arms raised and toes pointing straight outwards in opposite directions.

“ _Port de bras_ ,” Yuri instructs. They move their arms together, as synched up as they can be with their different skill levels. Down and up, open and closed, as graceful as he can be, all while keeping his feet in fifth position. It’s harder than he thinks it should be and he keeps breaking position or going out of rhythm with Yuri, but it’s better now than it was before.

“ _Rond de jambe_.”

Otabek draws half-circles with his left foot (the one furthest from the barre) going first forwards and then back. “Arm,” Yuri says, and he remembers to extend his arm as well. They’re working on his gracefulness in terms of ballet specifically--Yuri insists that he’ll improve from it.

“ _Arabesque_.”

He awkwardly balances on one leg, lifting the other straight behind him, and reaches his arms in front and behind as well. It’s a little ridiculous, but Yuri doesn’t laugh. He only moves on to the next thing, and Otabek tries to keep up. He doesn’t understand the terminology, but Yuri’s doing it with him and they’re all alone, so it’s okay. He doesn’t mind.

“Do you want to keep going?”

Otabek stops and considers this. It’s not every day that Yuri will accept somebody quitting as anything less than a failure, but here he is, offering a way out. It’s sweet, not that he’d ever say that out loud, and maybe one day he would have taken it.

“Yes,” he says with certainty, and Yuri nods and smiles a little.

“Good.”

It’s hard work, and the payout is sure to be less than spectacular, but he keeps going. He’d been given a second chance to connect with Yuri; he might as well give ballet a second chance as well.

**Author's Note:**

> For OtaYuri week on Tumblr. Day 3 prompt: childhood.  
> Come hang out with me on Tumblr [here](https://djbunn3.tumblr.com)!


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